Everything You Need to Know About Viruses and Immune Responses

Today, just a quick post to recommend this excellent essay in The Atlantic. It's officially about asymptomatic infections. But in the course of covering that it goes into great detail about how the immune system works and responds to viruses.

Regarding asymptomatic infection, it seems that some viruses in some people are able to suppress the innate immune reaction. That's an initial, generalized immune response to invaders, meant to keep them in check while your adaptive immune response kicks into gear to attack the specific virus (or whatever pathogen).  

The innate response is what makes you feel sick. So, if it is suppressed you can be infected and spread the virus without knowing it. 

I still don't get how lots of your cells could be hijacked, making virus copies rather than doing what they're designed to do, and not feel some effect of this. But like the article says, much of this is still mysterious.

Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay 

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